Dafydd's Collection of

The Lovelace/Church MMS of pre-Playford English Country Dances

Here is a series of web pages displaying a transcription of the original mms: Lovelace MMS




The 3rd draft of my paper on the manuscript: (coming soon)

Here is a spreadsheet with some specific pieces of information about each dance, enabling a quick overview and statistic comparison of the data contained herein.




A few brief facts about the manuscript (more to come as I learn more):

The manuscript exists in the Houghton Library of Harvard with the identifying number of MS Eng. 1356. It has various names, mainly Pattricke, after a signature on the cover in a different hand than the dances, and Lovelace, after the name attached to one of the published poems that shows up well after the dances in the manuscript (the poem was published in 1649, and most of the scholarly citations of this manuscript use this designation). However, it makes more sense to me to cite Thomas Church as the author, due to the fact that the section of poems that the Lovelace poem appears in has each page headed with the word "songs" (and the first of those pages indicates "paid"), and Thomas Church is the person who set that Lovelace poem to music. As yet, however, I have not found a citation for any of the other poems in either section being set to music by Mr Church.

There are elements within the manuscript that can be dated variously between 1649 (a few of the poems) and 1815. See the above link to my transcription of the manuscript for links to images of the actual manuscript.

To see the work done by Carol G Marsh in analyzing the manuscript, check here.



General Overview, with assumptions and broad conclusions about the manuscript and the body of dances therein.


Switch to numeric order
Bobbin Jone (28)
Boone Companion, The (18)
Cherping of the Nightingall, The (7)
Cuckles All a Row (15)
Fryer and the Nunne, The (32)
Gipsys, The (9)
Goddisses, The (10)
Good Your Worship (31)
Grayes Inn Maske/Tom a Bedlam (16)
Greenwood (25)
Harts Ease (23)
A Helth to Betty (27)
Highway to Westminster, The (5)
Jack Pudding (21)
Jogg On (30)
Ladyes Piller (6)
Lightly Love (11)
Mayden Fayre, A (14)
Milking Payle, The (4)
Moll Peatlye (1)
Murry (29)
Natly (26)
Noah's Flood (2)
Old Man with a Bed full of Bones, The (13)
Picking of Stickes, The (20)
Roses White, and Roses Red (22)
Step Stately (19)
St Johns (17)
Tenn Pounde (3)
Trenchmore (12)
Tumbling Jone (24)
Wind Mille, The (8)



Dance Page

Dafydd Cyhoeddwr, V3.0, Monday, March 10, 2014